30 Mar Where are the Worksheets?

Young children learn by doing! Think about your children – do they “get into everything?” This is perfectly normal, because we know that children acquire knowledge through interactions with the environment and people around them.

In a Montessori classroom, materials are available to explore and manipulate, teaching children concepts in language, math, science, etc. The materials are self-correcting. For example, the spindle box is a box with the numbers 0-9. There are only 45 spindles. If a child puts one spindle in the zero space, there will not be enough for all the other numbers. This teaches a child that the zero space is empty.

Worksheets are created by adults and have no tangible control of error. They are more abstract, which is appropriate for children in elementary school. For a young child, worksheets with matching and fill-in-the-blanks can be seen as “busy work”, which does not require real thinking skills. Once children have mastered the concrete concept being taught, they can record their own work. A child who is excited about learning the parts of a leaf has the opportunity to make a leaf rubbing and label it.

The best way to find out what your child is learning is to ask your child! Don’t ask, “what did you do today?” Most likely you will get an answer such as, “I don’t know” or “I played with my friends”. Instead, direct your questions to our theme of the week, “I heard you are learning about weather this week, what is the weather outside like today? And yesterday?” Ask your child what he/she sees outside the window on your way to school. Ask your child to describe the pictures in the book you are reading. Ask your child to count all the toys he/she picks up while cleaning. Just LISTEN to the answer. You may hear vocabulary and concepts you didn’t know your child knew.